[ke0me]

Decided to go battery power today.

Packed up the rig, antenna, dog, and water bottle and off to nearby state park.

According to the website band conditions were poor.

Wrong..... 20 and 17 meters were thick with signals. Really like the dual passband IF controls on the Icom.

Worked my first NPOTA station, and several state QSO parties.

I was running the Icom at 40 watts from the truck battery into an Alpha vertical with no counter poise. No grounds on radio.

Had a lot of fun until I got too tired to stand, I didn't make any provision for a table and chair.

A park ranger stopped by, and we had a nice chat about ham radio for 10 min or so. Probably saw the hood up on the truck and thought I might need help.


Ps- campground was full, no vacancy, typical Colorado state park on weekends.

Fall colors getting near peak and it was a nice sunny weekend.

Hopefully next Saturday will be as nice.